When I worked at the City News Bureau in Chicago, there was a quote from the now-defunct Bureau’s former editor — A.A. Dornfeld — posted in the newsroom.

It was the mantra of the old-school place, the foundation and a bit of a warning along the way.

“If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

So, folks will have to pardon the skepticism, but it has been conveyed in recent days Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been looking Rob Gronkowski’s way less this season. Either the extra attention defenses were paying to the Patriots’ all-everything tight end or a slight change in direction in the Patriots offense supposedly had Brady throwing elsewhere.

However, a breeze through the game video and a check of the numbers reveal Gronkowski and Brady are almost exactly on last year’s early pace, before they really put the foot on the gas down the stretch.

Last season through four games, Brady had targeted Gronkowski 27 times, completing 18 of the passes for 296 yards and five touchdowns.

This season, through four games, Brady has targeted Gronkowski 29 times, completing 19 of those passes for 260 yards to go with three touchdowns. So perhaps defenses are slightly limiting the run-after-catch on the 265-pound matchup nightmare. But Brady is still getting him the ball at the same pace he was at this point last year.

In 2011, Brady did look to Gronkowski more and more as the season wore on, targeting Gronkowski at least nine times in a game six different times over the Patriots’ last 10 regular-season games.

Overall, as the Broncos begin their preparations to face Brady on Sunday, Brady has looked outside plenty in the season’s first four games, having targeted former Broncos wide receiver Brandon Lloyd 40 times for 25 completions and having targeted wide receiver Wes Welker 37 times for 25 completions.

Given all of that, the Broncos still face the rather enormous decision about what to do with Gronkowski when the defense adds extra defensive backs to the field. The Patriots are running it slightly more — 137 rushing attempts through four games this year compared to 103 through four games last year. But they are still throwing it enough to be tied with the Broncos for 10th in the league in pass attempts (154).

The Patriots have lined up with at least three wide receivers in the formation 51.5 percent of the time and lined up with two or more tight ends in the formation 49.8 percent of the time. So, they are throwing the ball out of a variety of looks, including heavier formations with two and three tight ends.

And with Gronkowski, the 252-pound Daniel Fells and the 263-pound Michael Hoomanawanui, the Patriots can put the big guys into the pattern. At least one of them is going to have a defensive back, who is giving away at least 60 pounds, trying to match up.

Even with tight end Aaron Hernandez out with an ankle injury, the Patriots still consistently make defenses trying to slow Brady down with nickel and dime packages pay for the decision.

In the Broncos’ playoff loss last January in Foxborough, Mass., Brady simply feasted on the nickel formation, to the tune of six touchdown passes, three of those going to Gronkowski.

Lloyd, a free-agent signee, gives Brady a more athletic option on the outside than he’s had since perhaps Randy Moss was running patterns for the Patriots. And after a slow start, Wes Welker has 17 catches and two 100-yard receiving games in the last two weeks combined. But it’s still Gronkowski at the center of things.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick is the ultimate matchup tactician, one of the all-time best at seeking out a weakness and pounding away. The Broncos spent an awful lot of time and money this offseason trying to fix the defensive holes Belichick exploited last January.

But given what Heath Miller, Tony Gonzalez and the Texans’ contingent of tight ends have done already to the Broncos this season, the jury is still out over how much success the Broncos had with the repairs.

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